Bournemouth’s Marc Pugh eyes ‘massive’ Middlesbrough boost
Bournemouth midfielder Marc Pugh is targeting victory in Saturday’s home game against Middlesbrough as the Cherries look to avoid being sucked into the battle against relegation in the Premier League.
Eddie Howe’s side have just emerged from a tough run of fixtures against Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, which ended with a 4-0 drubbing at White Hart Lane last Saturday.
With five games of the season remaining, Bournemouth are seven points clear of the drop zone but know they can’t afford to take anything for granted against struggling Boro this weekend.
They’ll also be keen to avoid a repeat of the way they drifted through the back end of their last campaign, where they collected only four points from their final eight matches.
Pugh said: “We can’t dwell on the past – that’s been and gone.
“This week, we’ve got Middlesbrough at home. That’s a massive game and three points would boost our season.
“We’ve proven over the last five or six years that we can bounce back. We’ll work on what we did wrong and then try to rectify that to put in a solid, free-flowing performance.
“You have to approach every game like it’s your last.
“I love playing football, as do my teammates, and we want to do everything in our power to win games for this football club.
“We want to be playing in the Premier League next season, so we need to turn up and be the better team against Middlesbrough.”